Trying To Fish

Osnat of ‘Bon Bon’

translated by Mandy of ‘My Mermaid’

The Saddan family was never known for its fishing skills; however, fishing was always a great source of inspiration. We hoped and dreamed of success one day.

On our first sail from Israel to Cyprus we put the line on ‘Bon Bon’. We hoped to catch a juicy blue tuna fish. Nothing happened.

A few days before the next big sail, the Captain went to a special fishing store and bought some very expensive gear. I was shocked by the price, but decided that it would be better to keep quiet and not mention that our money might be sinking in the deep blue sea. "Deep” is, by the way, the name of the store. The kids were ecstatic, but then they didn't have to pay for it out of their own pockets. Still, it provided a good male bonding session when they fixed the new technology on ‘Bon Bon’.

D-Day arrived, and once again we were sailing to Cyprus, on our way to Turkey and the start of our new adventure.

The boys woke up early in the morning and before they even asked "what’s for breakfast?" jumped up on deck and regarded the magnificent technology (part of that lost money) and put a line out to sea. They sat near the rod and watched it carefully.

I was happy that they had something to do, something to hope for, and something with which to entertain themselves. One hour passed, two hours passed. Yuval, 10, was almost dead from boredom. Another hour, 12 hours, 24 hours... The

sun went down, the sun came up. Still no fish.

During all this time we had been motoring as there had been little or no wind. I was fed up with the noise from the engine, so I asked the Captain if it would be possible to turn off the engine for a short while, even if it meant slowing down. That was all I asked for. Turns out that this was the key to success, which means that I justifiably deserve part of the credit for what happened next.

We enjoyed the quiet and watched the sails blowing in the wind and the clouds above us making pictures. Suddenly we heard the unmistakable sound (which the boys claim to be the most beautiful sound on earth), of the the reel “whooshing”. The boys rushed to wake up the Captain. He had learned the technique of high-tech rod handling from user manuals and first-hand instruction in the shop. With confidence he explained that we needed to let the fish get tired (assuming of course that this was a real fish). We should release the clutch (did I mention that we are talking hi-tech?) slowly, and let out about 50 meters of line. Then slowly draw in the line and hopefully there would be a fish at the end (of the line not the rainbow).

Turns out that we had hooked a real fish! Not your run of the mill small fish, but a big beautiful  blue tuna. Some say it was 8 Kg. Some (basically me) think that it was a bit less, well, men have a tendency to exaggerate about size, don’t they? There’s no doubting that it was big and impressive. Lifting if from the sea was not easy and the boys fought bravely.

And yes, I thanked God and kept

quiet about the expensive equipment.

In the next issue Gordon of ‘Rama’ will give us hints and tips on fishing from your boat.

 

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